If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. - George Orwell

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Cool Woman

Today’s Cool Woman is Neerja Bhanot, a truly amazing young woman who died saving the lives of strangers.

21 years back on September 6, 1986 when five terrorists hijacked the US bound Pan Am Flight-73 flight at Karachi airport, and took control of the aircraft. One of the worst hijacks in aviation history it claimed 20 lives; this was the largest toll in a hijack until 9/11. The remaining 375 passengers and crewmembers would not have survived, if the airhostess Neerja Bhanot was not there.

Neerja Bhanot identified herself as one of the airhostess, who was held at gunpoint and announced that the place had been hijacked. Unfortunately, the three-member cockpit crew of pilot, co-pilot and the flight engineer abandoned the aircraft, leaving 400 passengers and a 13-member cabin crew in the hands of brutal, thoughtless terrorists. Since Neerja was the cabin crew leader, she took over command. Neerja requested the passengers to be calm and obey the hijackers. She served coffee and sandwiches and her charming smile eased the tide of fear that had swept across their faces.

The leaders of the hijack identified himself as Mustafa. He ordered Neerja to collect the passports of all the passengers. Later she realized that the Americans were the main target of the terrorists and in a brilliant move she discreetly collected all the American passports and hid them. There couldn’t have been a better way to confuse the terrorists. By 9.pm when the auxiliary power unit failed entirely and the aircraft was plunged into darkness. Fearing an imminent raid by commandos, the hijackers shouted now is the holy war!! They fired their AK47, till they exhausted the bullets. By then Neerja had opened an emergency exit and a pan Am mechanic opened another. She used all her strength to guide and push people down the chute and while shielding three children; she absorbed the onslaught of bullets into her own body.

She would have escaped by the emergency exit first, but the angelic women gave up her life to save the innocents like a mother. After spent the bullets, and try to escape, the Mustafa and others captured by commandos and sentenced to life by a UA court. Neerja was brave in life, brave in death.

For her bravery the Government of India posthumously awarded her the Ashoka Chakra (India's highest decoration for gallantry away from the battlefield, or not in the face of the enemy). She is the youngest recipient of the award. In 2004 the Indian Postal Service released a stamp commemorating her.

With the money from the insurance settlement, Neerja's parents set up a trust account honoring Indian women showing exemplary courage every year.

Islamabad, Jan. 3, 2008: Four Palestinians convicted in the 1986 hijacking of a Pan Am jet — remembered for the heroism of Neerja Bhanot —were freed in Pakistan today and put on a flight to Dubai.

Mohammed Abdul Khalil Hussain, Daud Mohammed Hafiz, Mohammed Ahmed al-Munawar and Jamal Saeed had been sentenced to death for the hijacking at Karachi airport that the Indian air hostess foiled.

But the punishment was later commuted to life sentence, which in Pakistan means 14 years in jail. The four walked out of the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi after serving their term.

The leader of the hijackers, Zayd Hassan Abd al-Latif Masud al Safarini, had been freed in 2001 — within a fortnight of 9/11 — after President Pervez Musharraf reduced his sentence.

But the Americans believed that justice had not been done in the case and US agents caught Safarini as he tried to sneak into Jordan. He was brought to the US, where he pleaded guilty to 95 charges and will spend the rest of his life in prison.

In 2003, he was sentenced to three consecutive life terms and a further 25 years in prison.

Twenty-two passengers and crew, including Neerja who was two days short of her 23rd birthday, were killed in the attempt to hijack the American airliner on its way from Mumbai to New York.

6 comments:

India is arguably the only country still not conquered by Islam, that has suffered the most from Islamic terror. A great civilisation was brought to its knees by Islam, only to be rescued primarily by the Portuguese, the British and many valiant Indian princes.

Neerja Bhanot is a prime example of millions of heroic Indians who have stood their ground in the face of the barbarism that is Islamic Fascism. If there is an award greater than the Asoka Chakra, she certainly deserves it.

An amazing girl. And so young too. Her whole career, hopes, dreams; her whole LIFE in front of her. sigh. It is so easy to hate and destruct, while to love and cherish is the real test of character. How wonderful it would be if those young fundamentalists who incite hatred would only use their energy to love, protect and respect everyone. If only...

"The strongest proof of real, extremely despotic power in Islam is the fact that it has been able to invalidate, in such large measure, the entire history (customs, religion, previous way of looking at things, earlier imagination) of the peoples converted to it. It accomplished this only by instilling into them a new religious arrogance which was stronger than everything and induced them to be ashamed of their past."

"Is the fate of gradually becoming an Arab nation the Maldive Islanders' only option?This is the Maldivian dilemma since they made the decision to accept the Arabs as their undisputed cultural masters and began to sever their links with their own past.Nowadays Maldivians are culturally restless people who can never be at ease.The intense indoctrination of the 1980s and 90s, when Islamization was imposed on the islands at a much higher gear than at any time in the nation's history, has made Maldivians feel uncozy in their own country.The changes brought about have been of such magnitude and in such a short time, that there is now a whole young generation of Divehi people who, having not known how things were previously, take for granted that their home nation has always been so orthodox and impersonal."

- Xavier Romero-Frias in THE MALDIVE ISLANDERS, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom

"The Islamic conquerors took everything from the newly conquered: money, language, culture, traditions, wives, children, values. Everything. The nature of Islam is that it replaces cultures wherever it gets a foothold."

150 Maldivian Adulteresses To Be Flogged

Stop the Islamic religious duty of Fuc-Kendun in Maldives!

When a husband pronounced his wife divorce three times “thrice divorced” and wants to remarry her, he cannot do it lawfully until he pays another man “Al Mohalil”(which means the legalizer) who marries this thrice divorced woman and (had sexual intercourse or consummating the marriage with her) and then dismisses her so that she may lawfully marry her former husband.

In Quran sura al-Baqara 2:230 says,”…So if a husband divorced his wife he cannot after that remarry her until after she has married another husband, and he has divorced her, in that case there is no blame on either of them if they reunite…”

Abu Dawud (2142) - "The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: A man will not be asked as to why he beat his wife."

ISLAMIC FUK-KENDUN IS A MORAL AND PHYSICAL RAPE.

In Islam a husband can reunite with his wife after divorcing her under this condition: When a woman is divorced irrevocably, she can not return to her husband until she marries (including having sexual intercourse) with another man. "Narrated Aisha: The wife of Rifaa Al-Qurazi came to Allah's Apostle and said, 'O Allah's Apostle, Rifaa divorced me irrevocably. After him I married Abdur-Rahman bin Az-Zubair Al-Qurazi who proved to be impotent.' Allah's Apostle said to her, 'Perhaps you want to return to Rifaa? Nay (You cannot return to Rifaa ) until you and Abdur-Rahman (the impotent man) engage in sexual intercourse! '" Vol. 7:186

The making of the ancient Dhivehi island people into semi-Arab Muslims

How Dhivehi minds are groomed to become lifelong zombies that they can't apply minimum logic and reason to discover numerous obvious errors and contradictions in the Quran and Hadith and that they consider the most horrendous, unethical and barbarous actions of Muhammad as acts of great morality and humanity...

Did you know ?

Until about 100 years ago in Divehi we didn't say "salaan kurun"?We said Namaskaarakurun or Swasti(Swasti = Peace)

men & women are equal in Islam?

Women cannot touch the Koran during certain days because they are unclean

Dhivehistanis want to conquer the world for Allah

"Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies..." -- Koran 8:60

Muslim Arab missionaries and Dhivehi collaborateurs

Muslims cite Islamic taboos and Koranic injections as more important than freedom of thinking. Freedom of expression is and always has been subject to Islamic taboos. Islamic taboos exist to keep Muslims from thinking independently and these taboos are enforced by Mullahs and Islamic rulers. Those who oppose are silenced or beheaded. Public expression against Mohammed or Allah will be labeled as apostate and those dissenters will be severely punished. Strict censorship is imposed on TV, film, magazines and newspapers by religious bodies and by the government.

"If a book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides if we choose". -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect, and author (1743-1826)

“If these writings of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed”. - Umar the Caliph of Islam after the conquest of Alexandria in 641, ordered the great library to be destroyed.

The books were then used to heat the furnaces of the numerous bath-houses of the city.

Maldives Minister of Islamic Affairs says

"Shari’ah law ultimately requires the killing of those who leave Islam."

All smiles after being found guilty of massacring 52 Hindus in a 2003 bombing, Hanif Anees is also quite dedicated to his religion. (Care to guess which one?)

Maldives Constitution: No Citizenship for non-Muslims

Article 9, Section D : “a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives.”

By denying citizenship to some people on the basis of their religion, the country is violating religious minorities’ freedom of worship.

“This denial of citizenship to non-Muslims is an extraordinarily harsh measure which places the Maldives among the worst countries in the world in regards to the legal foundation for freedom of religion and belief,”

What does the Koran say about Jihad?

In Islam's 3 Holy Books: 97% references to jihad relate to holy war; while only 3% relate to inner struggle

"Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world." -- Sir Winston Churchill - circa 1899